Tuesday, May 7, 2013

BLOG TOUR [Guest Post + GIveaway] Storm (Swipe #3) by Evan Angler

Summary from Goodreads:
In a future United States under the power of a charismatic leader, everyone gets the Mark at age thirteen. The Mark allows citizen to shop, go to school, and even get medical care--without it, you are on your own. Few refuse to get the Mark. Those who do . . . disappear.

Logan Langly went in to get his Mark, but he backed out at the last minute. Ever since, he's been on the run from government agents and on a quest to find his sister Lily, who disappeared when she went to get her Mark five years earlier. His journey leads him to befriend the Dust, a vast network of Markless individuals who dissent against the iron-grip rule of the government. Along the way to the capital to find Lily, the Dust receive some startling information from the Markless community, opening their eyes to the message of Christianity and warning that humanity is now entering the End of Days.

In "Storm," Logan and his friends are the leaders of the Markless revolution. But while some Markless are fighting Chancellor Cylis' army, the Dust is busy trying to find a cure for a horrible epidemic sweeping through the Marked. And it's difficult for them to know who to trust, especially when they aren't sure if Logan's sister Lily, one of the commanders in Cylis' army, is on their side or not. And all across the nation--and the world--the weather is become less stable, and a storm is brewing that bigger than any of them could have ever imagined....

Evan lives without the Mark, evading DOME and writing in the shadows of Beacon.

Swipe is his first book. But if anyone asks, you know nothing about it, and you didn't hear anything from him. Don't make eye contact if you see him. Don't call his name out loud. He's in enough trouble already.

For the launch of my latest banned book, STORM, I am doing something that I’ve never done before: I am releasing a series of deleted scenes. Scenes that are cannon, that did happen, and that simply didn’t fit on the page. What follows here is an exclusive first look at one of my very favorites--a scene in which Tyler and the Dust try to find Eddie by luring him out of Acheron along with his squad of IMPS, and in which Blake and Joanne discuss strategy and next steps.

So why am I doing this, you ask? Why am I publishing this deleted moment?

Perhaps it is just one more way to stick it to DOME. As if a third Swipe novel weren’t enough to ruffle their feathers, now I’m insisting on sprinkling it with bonus material too. Take that, Chancellor Cylis! How do you like me now?

But no. That’s not the only reason. That’s not all.

Because the truth is, it’s my hope that the scene you are about to read will inform the story of STORM, will complement it, will add to it and enhance it once all is said and done.

Because one way or another, a storm is coming. And it threatens everything we’ve ever fought for, all this time. And the more we know before it hits, the better.

Because right now, we Markless need all the help we can get.

Yours,

Evan Angler

Back in Beacon, Tyler had returned to his favorite second-tier department store, and he was wearing absolutely every piece of clothing he could find. The store owner was threatening him, tablet in hand. The store owner was about to call on the Beacon IMPS for help.

“Nothing would please me more,” Tyler said, donning a fourth jacket on top of his other three. “Does it make me look fat?” he asked Meg, who stood by wearing all the free make-up samples the store had to offer, laughing hysterically.

“He’s gonna come out this time,” Tyler whispered to Meg. “I just know he is. Eddie will be one of them—this time. He’ll be one of the IMPS! And we’ll be reunited at last. I just know it will work.”

Blake looked on from the second-tier sidewalk as Tyler stirred up trouble in the store across the automatic doors. He looked down at the protests roaring below. He tapped his foot, his arms crossed impatiently, and he spoke in harsh whispers to Jo, standing beside him, holding Rusty’s hand.

“There’s no progress. We’re just stuck here, fenced in, shouting the same lame slogans day after day while Tyler gets up to his same stupid tricks! What’s even the point of all this?”

“The point? What’s the point?” Jo gestured up to the soaring buildings above them, up to the floors and floors of Marked apartments and businesses and stores. “This is the point, Blake. This. The eyes that are on us. Watching us. The ears that hear us. We’re not out here to overthrow Lamson, Blake. We can’t overthrow Lamson. If we tried, his IMPS would mow us down right where we stood.

“A real revolution,” Jo told him. “A real revolution doesn’t happen when some group of impatient rebels storms a castle. It happens without the people in charge even noticing it. It happens in a way they can’t see, or feel, or defend against. It happens when very floor corrodes out from underneath them. When the last of their support is gone. When they’ve no one left to guard their castle, even from the rats. When it’s just them, alone at the top of the spire...waiting for death to come.

“That’s what revolutions look like, Blake. It isn’t some great clash of armor and swords. It’s evaporation.

“And right now...Lamson’s base is evaporating. Because of what we’re doing here. Because of these lame slogans. Because we’ve stayed peaceful, even in the face of Lamson’s martial law. Because we’re better in that way. And because the Marked are beginning to see it.

“We storm this castle now, we lose. We are fighting with our lives, Blake. But not by throwing them away on top of some heap of broken bodies. By using them, strategically, as the proof that we’re serious. And as the proof that Lamson and his IMPS are the bad guys for taking them.

“That’s how we win this thing. That’s how we storm this castle—by killing it with kindness. By outlasting it. By waiting for the moment when we can walk right up and take it...because there’ll be no one left to stop us.”

Blake grunted, impatiently. “And in the meantime.”

Jo shrugged. “In the meantime, we help Tyler fish for Eddie.”

At the store’s side entrance, across the building from where Blake and Jo stood, a new team of IMPS entered in full tactical gear. Soon, Tyler was running out the doors, toward Blake and Jo. They ran with him, ready to help him escape.